Orange alert: Heavy rain and thunderstorms to hit six provinces

The South African Weather Service (Saws) has warned of severe thunderstorms, flooding and damaging winds across six provinces on Thursday. KwaZulu-Natal is likely the most severely affected, with an orange level 5 warning, while the other five provinces are under yellow level warnings of varying intensity. The weather service has released its latest weather forecast for 18 December 2025.

Weather forecast for today & tomorrow, 17 – 18 December 2025.Partly cloudy & warm to cool conditions are expected, with isolated to scattered showers & thundershowers over the central & eastern parts of the country but widespread over KZN & the eastern half of the Eastern Cape.pic.twitter.com/msg2aUOmsj Theweather servicehas issued an orange level 5 warning for severe thunderstorms accompanied by heavy downpours with the potential to cause flooding of susceptible roads and settlements, strong damaging winds, hail and excessive lightning resulting in danger to life expected over the western and northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal. A yellow level 4 warning for severe thunderstorms accompanied by heavy downpours with the potential to cause flooding of susceptible roads and settlements, strong damaging winds, hail and excessive lightning resulting in danger to life is expected over south-central Limpopo, northern Gauteng and western Highveld of Mpumalanga. Saws issued a yellow level 2 warning for severe thunderstorms accompanied by heavy downpours, damaging winds, excessive lightning and hail resulting in localised flooding and damage to infrastructure and settlements expected over most parts of Mpumalanga, southern Gauteng, eastern and central North West, extreme eastern parts of Free State, the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, and Limpopo except in the north-east.

Johannesburg’s power utility, City Power, warned that a severe thunderstorm alert issued by the weather service could lead to more power outages and slower restoration across Johannesburg. The utility said ongoing heavy rainfall has already placed the utility under pressure, with outage reports averaging more than 3 000 a day last week. Flooded roads, unsafe conditions, fallen trees and damaged infrastructure have also delayed repairs, while waterlogged ground and underground cable faults are making restoration more complex. City Power has deployed additional resources but urged residents to remain cautious, unplug appliances where possible, use electricity sparingly and note that supply may be restored without notice.